ETSU

[shaggyJ]

Has anyone else heard the rumors that ETSU won't have a football team in the next few years because of the amount of money they lose every year on the sport($900,000). There is also talk about putting in an athletic fee of 100 dollars with tuition. I feel that this unfair to make regular students pay the way of athletes that in my opinion SUCK. They are terrible and I don't think anyone will miss football at ETSU. Maybe now I can go see games at UT or at VATech instead of having to go march in the band for a horrible team that couldn't beat a lot of TN high school teams.

[mynameis]

I understand you may not like watching them lose, but until you have played football at the level they are and practiced like they do then you have no right to discuss them "sucking."

[shaggyJ]

the point that i am trying to make is that our institution is losing almost 1 million dollars a year on a football team that has more fans show up from the other team than their own. this happens even if the team is more than 3 hrs. away. i don't think that the students of ETSU should have to help reemburce the university because our football team can only win 1-2 conference games a season.

[mynameis]

I agree that the student body should not be the ones reimbursing the athletic money woes.

[ie3]

The student body shouldn't be reembursing the university for athletic losses. But then again, are there any programs at ETSU that are holding their own or making money? Maybe basketball, maybe. Everything else consumes state funds. For that matter, the students consume more state funds than does the football team. I'm not sure if they still do it or not, but my tuition statements used to have a line on it with the amount the taxpayers of Tennessee paid that semester for my education. My senior year, my tuition was over $900, but the taxpayers kicked in an additional $3200+. How many of the the taxpayers dollars are consumed by the fraternities and sororities? By the other on-campus orgainizations? By the band? Let's get a grip here and face reality, it is easy to put the blame on a certain group, especially if we are not in that group or don't like that group. I think everyone needs to realize the mission of a regional university, it is not to entertain us, it is not to train people so that they can get jobs in another section of the country, or just expand their minds. The mission of a regional university is to simply train future taxpayers. The bottom-line is the return on the investment the taxpayers made in the student. If the student is trained in a profession that has no bearing on the region or no future in the region, that is a wasted investment and should not be furthered. It's easy to say, " Colleges are to expand the education of the many and increase the quality of living for the graduate." But bottom-line, universities are trade schools that just happen to throw in a few other things to help make you a more well rounded taxpayer!

Now to the point, does the football team lose money, most likely, most if not all non-division 1A schools do. Do many other organizations lose more money? With a certainty. So why do away with the football team, that functions as advertisement (which these other organisations do not), and keep the real money sponges at the university?

[mynameis]

Will the players that decide to transfer after this year have to sit out a year? Will any of the upcoming freshman be released from there signing to maybe try to make it with another team. Anyone with any kind of ideas what the players may be doing post any info. I feel bad for the guys that are losing the opportunity to play ball and go to school.

[CoachT]

I am pretty sure they would be eligible immediately if they transferred after this season and the school does drop the program.

[TheEgoHasLanded]

At UT the athletic program is self-funded...if their is a budget crisis it takes a hit, but not like the university does (UT will lose 9% of state appropriations next fall which is a 39 million dollar cut)

 

I take it ETSU's athletic program is not self-funded?

 

think about other sports like women's basketball (UT lady vols didn't break even till like 1996) but they still had a team way before that...what about other sports at ETSU, golf, cross country, swimming, volleyball, etc.?

 

Cutting football would hurt the men in Title IX...some female teams might have to be cut as well?

[ie3]

Ego,

Most of the programs in D1 are in the red. It was reported on NPR this week in a story about the coming realignment of conferences that even Miami loses around one million a year. Tennessee is lucky in that it has the support to keep the program in the black. I don't know what will happen to the players that the university had made a committment to, it would be outrageous to cancell their scholarships. But then again, nothing about this situation makes any sense, the numbers quoted in many news stories don't jibe with each other. When the story first broke, the number was 900000, now some are reporting a loss of 9.5 million. Well, when the alumni say get rid of it, what can you do? Makes me ashamed to be an alumn. I honestly feel the public is being subjected to creative accounting to further the political agenda at ETSU.

[Indian]

I would think everyone there should be able to find scholarship dollars at some level, maybe another Division 1-AA program, maybe NAIA, Division II or some of those with good enough grades maybe Division III with academic dollars. Maybe some of the best players could even play for a smaller Division 1-A program It happens every now and then, such a move up. I am hoping some of the players from around Chattanooga that have signed/played with ETSU will consider playing for their locak team-in particular guys like James Garmany, Eric Losey and Nick Rivers.